Question

In a food pyramid, there is typically less biomass at the top. In three to five sentences, explain this phenomenon, citing evidence relating to energy flow and how plants support ecosystems

Answer 1

The food pyramid represents the flow of energy through an ecosystem. At each level of the pyramid, energy is lost as heat during the metabolic processes of organisms, resulting in less energy available for the next trophic level. Since plants are primary producers that convert sunlight into chemical energy through photosynthesis, they have the highest biomass and energy capture efficiency. As energy is transferred from plants to herbivores and then to higher-level consumers, energy loss occurs at each step due to respiration, movement, and metabolic processes. This energy loss, coupled with the fact that higher-level consumers require more energy to sustain their larger bodies, leads to a decrease in biomass towards the top of the food pyramid.